p. 22 | All Have a Place and a Work

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 16, 1916

All Have a Place and a Work

The most practical evidence of appreciation of our literature is found in the orders received. The 2,000,000 copies of the REVIEW Extras ordered last year are a very substantial testimony in their favor, and the present increasing flood of orders reveals a growing interest in these Extras; yet they are not injuring the circulation of our other papers, but are creating a demand for them and also for books. The Extras being cheap, our people can afford to use them generously; and being excellent in contents, they create a demand for larger and more expensive literature. They might be called the skirmishers of our army of publications.

One of our workers in Virginia in a recent letter makes the following comment on the Extras and other literature:—

“The REVIEW Extras with our weekly Signs of the Times, I am sure, will play an important part in the closing message among my people. Some years ago when I labored in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, I desired to have cheap literature for the colored people in the Southern States. Many could not afford to pay ten cents for a magazine. The Signs was the only paper we had for them, and many copies of it were sold; but now we are planning to sell more literature, for we have a godsend in the Extras, at a small price.

“We have used a large number of the Extras, and are planning to see that every home is visited with them. We sell them at one cent each. This gives us a little percentage. We were not told what to sell them at, so this price appealed to us. We are encouraging the children, as well as older persons, to sell them. They all take delight in selling them. A little boy took some to a factory where his mother worked, and he told me he sold all of them. I encouraged him in his sales, and gave him another supply.

“Some of our people like a large bundle of literature for a small price, for many look at ten cents a good while before they will part with it, but five cents or less they will let go easier. But my burden for some years has been for cheap literature for the colored people of the Southern States, and now the Lord has given it, and the larger papers seem to sell better. One lame sister sells one hundred Signs every week. She is in her seventies. Another sells about fifty a week. She is in her eighties. The twenty-five-cent books, ‘The Shadow of the Bottle,’ ‘The World’s Crisis,’ and others, are special gifts of the Lord, and are being sold in large quantities.

“Brethren, you need to be encouraged. Do not allow the Extras to stop. Let them still come to the homes of the people, filled with the message for this time. W. H. SEBASTIAN.”